It certainly is Fizzy.. I so wish Involve could get a new CD-4 solution out asap so i could throw the 2 JVC units in the dustbin!
fwiw I tried a couple of tracks off the Planet Waves CD-4 thru the Surround Master in QS mode last night and not only was it not much cop it didn't resemble the Quad thru the JVC demod (sandpaper and all).. damn shame..
very tempted to go down the Q8 route (against my better judgement and especially the judgment of at least one QQ-er who knows more about the perils of Q8 than most to put it mildly who has advised - I'm paraphrasing but - "don't go there!") I have to say, really rather fed up with CD-4 all round.. I was up til 5am trying to get it "just right" and every time I thought I had it licked and the front vocals all but cancelled out in both rear channels BOOM I got sandpaper - even on tracks that never had sandpaper before I started tinkering with it again last night I was getting sandpaper and bursts of distortion!
oh yeah and I don't know what has happened since the last time I used it but using the setup record I now cannot get the 30khz tone to "meep" smoothly at any of the 30khz level settings 1 thru 10, its just tiny weeny degrees of greater or lesser distorted "meeping" whereas before I got a splatting meep at about 5-ish which then calmed down at around 4-ish to a smooth meep with very occasional tiny splatting at the end of the test tone.. ugh!
to those Quad maestro's here who have conquered CD-4 and got the kind of separation out of it that truly rivals discrete I take my big old top hat off to you cos I just can't and I've tried and tried and tried and tried and tried...!! how trying..!